Research Catalog

Title

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph : family trouble in the Infancy Gospels / Christopher A. Frilingos.

Author

Frilingos, Christopher A.

Publication

• Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017]
• ©2017

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 183 pages; 24 cm

Summary

When Jesus was five he killed a boy, or so reports the Infancy Gospel of Thomas. A little boy had run into Jesus by accident, bumping him on the shoulder, and Jesus took offense: "Jesus was angry and said to him, 'You shall go no further on your way,' and instantly the boy fell down and died." A second story recounts how Jesus transformed mud into living birds, while yet another has Joseph telling Mary to keep Jesus in the house so that no one else gets hurt. What was life really like in the household of Joseph, Mary, and little Jesus? The canon of the New Testament provides few details, but ancient Christians, wanting to know more, would turn to the texts we know as the "Infancy Gospels." The Infancy Gospel of Thomas is a collection of stories from the mid-second century C.E. describing events in the life of Jesus between the ages of five and twelve. The Proto-gospel of James, also dating from the second century, focuses on Mary and likewise includes episodes from her childhood. These gospels are often cast aside as marginal character sketches, designed to assure the faithful that signs of divine grace cropped up in the early years of both Mary and Jesus. Christopher A. Frilingos contends instead that the accounts are best viewed as meditations on family. Both gospels offer rich portrayals of household relationships at a time when ancient Christians were locked in a fierce debate about family-not only on the question of what a Christian family ought to look like but also on whether Christians should pursue family life at all.

Series Statement

Divinations: rereading late ancient religion

Uniform Title

Divinations.

Subjects

• Jesus Christ
• Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint
• Protevangelium Jacobi
• Jesus Christ > Childhood and youth
• Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint > Biography
• Jesus Christ > Family
• Protevangelium Jacobi > Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Apocryphal infancy Gospels
• Childhood of Jesus Christ
• Gospel of Thomas (Infancy Gospel) > Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Families
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Biography

Genre/Form

• Biography.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFE 17-7746

ISBN

• 9780812249507
• 081224950X

LCCN

2017007063

OCLC

976405978

Author

Frilingos, Christopher A., author.

Title

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph : family trouble in the Infancy Gospels / Christopher A. Frilingos.

Publisher

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2017]

Copyright Date

©2017

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Divinations: rereading late ancient religion

Divinations.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 17-7746